This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
The collection consists of personal, professional, and project-related papers. The project and professional papers are made up of contracts, specifications, proposals, published speeches, reports, clippings, trade catalogs, and engineering drawings and documents. Among the projects documented in the collection are T. Kennard Thomson's Niagara River Water Power project, Manhattan Extension project, New York City Belt Line Railroad and Elevated Highways project, and Fifth Avenue Traffic Puzzle project. Additional engineering projects represented in the collection include those primarily related to bridge and elevated railroad projects. The personal papers include photographs, financial records, obituaries, clippings, and collected ephemera of Thomson and his extended family members. The personal papers also include menus, programs, and bulletins from various clubs and societies Thomson was associated with, including the Canadian Club of New York and the University of Toronto Engineering Society (founded by Thomson while at University).
Source of acquisition--Kenneth L. MacRitchie. Method of acquisition--Donated;; Date of acquisition--2016. Accession number--2016.008.
T. Kennard Thomson (1864-1952) was an engineer and urban planner. His engineering work was in the field of railways, bridges, and foundations. He is best known for his ambitious proposal, first published in 1911 as "A Really Greater New York" which radically re-envisioned the landscape around New York by reclaiming land from the East River to create an additional nine square miles of useful land. Among his other visionary proposals included a plan to relieve the city of its traffic congestion through a four deck avenue, with one for rapid-transit trains, one for trucks, one for buses, taxis, and automobiles and one for pedestrians. Another project sought to dam the lower Niagara River and create a "Little Niagara Falls" in order to utilize all the power developed from the river.
T. Kennard Thomson was born in Buffalo, NY in 1864. He studied civil engineering at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1886. Thomson was named after Thomas W. Kennard, Chief Engineer of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. His father William Alexander Thomson (1817-1878) founded the Canada Southern Railway and served in the Canadian Parliament from 1872 to 1878. Thomson and his wife Mary Julia Harvey had five children. The family lived at 30 Madeline Parkway in Yonkers, NY. Thomson died in 1952.